Monday 25 December 2017

Beti Bachao Beti Padhao.

                             

                   Beti Bachao Beti Padhao: Some thoughts

The media reported a new-born girl having been rescued from a “lavatory bowl” in Sheopur district of Madhya Pradesh; the mother having accidentally “delivered” the girl child into the toilet! Although the authorities are still investigating this particular case, it is a stark reminder that we Indians shamelessly continue to kill a large number of our girls either inside the mother’s womb or after their birth.


In our Indian society, a woman has various connotations including “Durga”, “Laxmi”, “Love”, “Mother”, “Honour”, “Pride”, “Beauty” but also “Prostitution”, “Trafficking”, “Rape”, “Acid Attack”, “Harassment”, and “Slave”. For a long time, a girl child has been considered a curse in the Indian society; a social burden, for “who will carry forward the legacy of the family”; an economic burden, for “who is going to pay that hefty amount of dowry”. Although already one of the top powers in the world, the demons of ill minded societal norms still cloud over India’s present. For some reasons, we have not been collectively able to overcome these archaic norms and narrow minded thinking. For some reasons, we continue to fail our girls.

Even though we have sufficient laws banning female foeticide, the problem has not gone away. In fact, many would argue that the problem has only become worse. This perhaps necessitates a different approach to solving this menace. We do not need families not killing a girl child because the laws say so, or because they fear being punished. We need them to not kill a girl because they want a daughter. We need them to celebrate having a baby girl. Towards this end we think that in addition to penalizing the offence, there needs to be a robust mechanism which incentivizes having a girl child in the Indian families. We offer some thoughts in this respect.


At the core of female foeticide is the notion of our girls considered as “paraya dhan”. The logic in the minds of some Indian families is fairly simple really. All the investments on a girl child including on education, health, clothing and food would not come back as returns. In fact, these investments would need to be topped up by a substantial one-time dowry payment at the time of marriage. On the other hand, for a male child not only the investments are going to yield a net return (presumption being that the boy would take care of his parents in their old age) but the incoming dowry amount, at the time of the boy’s marriage, is also a net profit.


To tackle this effectively, firstly, we should try and abolish dowry once and for all. We Indians have an extremely rich set of traditions and we are all proud of it. Dowry is certainly not one of them and needs to end.  Although we have legislations to deter this practise, these legislations have not been very effective. To deal with this effectively, in addition to the current laws and regulations, the idea of dowry has to be put “out of fashion”. This could be done with the help of popular media, Bollywood, and popular Indian celebrities. Good Bollywood and regional cinema on the lines of “Toilet: Ek Prem Katha” should be actively encouraged with tax incentives. Additionally, some regions in India, especially parts of North-east, are shining examples in this context. These should be brought to the mainstream.

The other aspect is to address the reliability of the notion of the male child being the future bread earner of the family. Although it is difficult to get data of how many parents in their old age are being supported by their sons and daughters, in percentage terms, it is certainly true that with changing lifestyles and rising income levels Indian families are becoming more nuclear. The dependence of parents on their sons is reducing pretty much automatically due to a variety of reasons. Although this might not be true for all families, it is certainly true of a significant number of families. Moreover, this trend is catching on. 
              
In this context, government intervention at the central and state levels would help. Annual tax benefits could be given to parents of a girl child. We already have higher non-taxable income slabs for females but we need to extend this benefit to the parents of the girl child. The tax rebate to females does not majorly benefit the girl’s parents as the female gets married at the prime of her career and thus her husband’s family gets the primary benefit. The income tax rebate to a girl’s parents would take care of this.

Additionally, the government could look at the possibility of reimbursing a percentage of taxes paid by the parents of the girl child (if she survives of course) in their old age, that is, when they reach the age of 60 years. For the people living in rural areas and people with low income levels, subsidy on seeds, LPG, petrol and diesel and lower interest rates on loans from banks could also be explored, thus also contributing towards financial inclusion in the country.

The governments at the Centre and state levels have been running campaigns to stop female foeticide and infanticide for a long while now and they are indeed commendable. But we have a long way to go before we are able to change the way our society operates. Decade long traditions and mind-sets will take ages to get altered. But we need to make a fresh and novel effort to get rid of this curse. We need to protect and actively encourage our girls so that they become the next Indira*, Arundhatti, Sania and Deepika. (please read as *Smt. Indira Gandhi , former Prime Minister; Smt. Arundhati Bhattacharya , banker; Mrs. Saina Mirza, athlete and Miss. Deepika Padukone, Bollywood celebrity).

#A girl is nature’s beauty, saving her is our duty.



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